When it comes to cosmetics, color is everything. Whether you’re looking for a dramatic smoky eye shadow, or to simply enhance your natural skin tone a shade lighter or darker can change the entire look. In fact, most cosmetic consumers will find a color palette they like and continue to purchase colors that work best for them. That is why repeatability in cosmetic production is absolutely vital, as it will increase both brand loyalty and sales.

How is repeatability achieved in cosmetic production? Through precise color measurements. As in all production processes, basic visual analysis is often a first step to confirm that a color shade is in the same ballpark as the hue being produced. Unfortunately, not only is visual inspection a very limited method for ensuring color quality, the different shine and textures of some powdered cosmetics can make discerning the exact hue difficult.

To solve this problem and come up with a definitive method for determining correct color, sphere-based spectrophotometric technology was introduced. Using highly accurate color measurement instruments creates a quantifiable numeric value that can then be matched to the original color to ensure the color is within the acceptable color tolerance. Spectrophotometry is versatile as a quality control method, and is able to be applied at multiple points throughout the many stages of processing and development to make sure the color remains consistent through each step.

Overall, spectrophotometry is preferred in the cosmetic industry because it confirms the data obtained with visual inspection and quantifies it numerically, which reduces potential color errors early on in the process. This saves cosmetic manufacturers valuable time and money while securing them a consistent, high-quality product with a high resale value at the outset.

Of course, color measurements are only as accurate as the instruments used to make them. Konica Minolta is an industry leader in top-of-the-line color measurement instruments like the CM-5, the CM-700d, and CM-3700a. Such highly accurate instruments are able to deliver precise color measurement data for manufacturing applications within the cosmetic industry keeping cosmetic consumers looking fabulous.

In addition to instrumentation, Konica Minolta also has a suite of software for Quality Control and Color Formulation. Combining these software products with color instruments provides all departments in the cosmetic industry with highly accurate and traceable data to control color through the production process.